Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Kelly.
Alex, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
As a child, I was incredibly lucky to have experiences that widened my palate, but I think baking has always been baked into my DNA. As a military child, we moved around a few times, but in those moves, we were able to travel to far away places, experience different cultures and cuisines, and learn just how big the world can be if you’re open to learning about it. One of the constants we had in all of those homes was our family’s baked goods. My mom immigrated from Cuba to the U.S. when she was seven, and right across her house on Fifth Street was Oteri’s Bakery. It’s that bakery where my parents worked and met each other. Granted, Cubans aren’t famous for their baked goods, but there was always some sweet treat on the counter, like Pineapple Upside-down Cake, Texas Fudge Cake, or homemade cookies.
Crust + Coop is the product of my love for baking and sharing that passion with those around me. For a while, my friends and family had been telling me that my cakes, cheesecakes, cookies, breads, and other confections I’ve attempted, have been good, but they have to say that! It took me a long time to quiet that voice of self-doubt saying that I’m no baker. I’ve learned that we are multi-faceted and complex creatures, and our identity doesn’t need to be so rigid. I’m many things: I’m a full-time middle school orchestra director, a licensed REALTOR®, a violinist, a private violin teacher, and also a baker. I spent months brainstorming ideas, testing out different balances in my recipes, collecting feedback from my taste testers, and this summer, I finally launched my microbakery.
Last year, I had mentioned to my students that I bake my own bread–I have never seen 12 year olds get so excited about flour. They begged me to bring bread in for them, so I woke up early to bake their sourdough focaccia before work. I think each kid got maybe 2 square inches of bread, but they were so excited and have asked for “Bread Parties” to be a reward that they can buy with their practice points. Many of them asked if they could buy it from me and if I sell at farmers’ markets. Middle schoolers usually won’t spare your feelings and will be honest–they helped give me that one last push to take the leap.
I have a website and Instagram where people can order exactly what they want, pay online, and can pick up when it’s convenient for them. Between helping my real estate clients ratify contracts, teaching my 5 private violin students, and my day job working with my 160 orchestra students, there have been some early mornings and late nights. My husband, Shane, holds down the fort with a generous and patient smile. We have a lot going on in our home, and I wouldn’t be able to juggle what I am without his support.
Our three dogs (Coda, Clover, and Cayenne), our other pets (Camille-de-Leon the chameleon, a freshwater tank, and a 220-gallon saltwater reef tank), and a beehive near our garden with our queen bee, Beeoncé, and our Crust + Coop employees (the hens, Pebbles the Peking, and our Quail Staff), all are also a lot to manage, but our animals are all super important to us. We value animal lives tremendously and raise them with our whole hearts. The chickens have been raised by us from day old, Pebbles and our quails were hatched from eggs right here—multi-generational birds raised with love—and we take pride knowing that they are well-fed, cared for, and never experience what most birds do in commercial egg conditions. With the cost of groceries skyrocketing, but mainly in the spirit of becoming closer to our food source, we decided to rent some chickens. Yes. Rented chickens. After a week of our rental, we knew we’d never want to live somewhere without having our own flock, and emailed the rental company to ask to buy and keep them. Watching them freely graze about the yard, under the watchful gaze of their guard dogs, pecking and scratching–it felt like we unlocked a core part of being human. That’s only grown, and thankfully, I can use my real estate tools to keep an eye out for properties where we can have more space to let the flock spread their wings more. Quail eggs have been our solution to keeping our dogs’ coats and skin healthy, and with hatching and raising our own, I know exactly where those eggs came from. We love being able to share this connection with nature and our food source with our chicken, quail, and duck eggs, my homemade quarter-pound cookies, and breads, and supplementing those recipes with ingredients I grow from seed in our backyard garden.
I’ve had some people ask how I have the energy to do all that I do, but most of what I do is what makes me feel so fulfilled in life. I get to see lightbulb moments every 30 minutes as kids learn a new skill or technique, help a client find a new place to call home and start a new chapter, share delicious baked goods with people who support me, and spend time with my husband and our dogs, tending to our animals, plants, and other hobbies–I feel lucky that I get to do what I do, and the fact that you’re taking time to learn about me makes me feel incredibly humbled, honored, grateful, (still a little imposter syndrome-y), and immensely thankful.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I set out to “do the thing”, I never really had any goals. I didn’t quit my day job, wasn’t thinking about selling baked goods as a get-rich-quick scheme, or even have an estimate of when I wanted to launch it. The way I’ve been approaching Crust + Coop has been easy because I’ve been trying to allow things to happen authentically. I believe the best things in life show up when we make room. I’ve learned I have to say ‘no’ to good opportunities so I actually have the time and energy to recognize and accept the incredible ones.
The only obstacle I can see is something I can’t even complain about. It makes me feel like the people who say in an interview “Uhh, I think my biggest weakness is actually how dedicated I am.” My supportive husband has been watching me juggle things, adjusting and acclimating to the workload, especially as a new school year starts. His concern has shown me that instead of having an open order form where customers can place an order for whatever they want, and I’ll work on it custom for them, sometimes even same-day orders, I may need to explore having dedicated baking days/times. See? “Oh no, I have too much business and may need to modify one thing for better balance” doesn’t feel like I should be complaining! I’m just lucky and happy to be along for this ride that Crust + Coop has and will continue to take me on.
We’ve been impressed with Crust + Coop, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I think my specialty has been ironing out my cookie recipe. I’ve made several different varieties, and am continuing to experiment. If I’m going to spend calories on something, it better be worth it, and these quarter-pound cookies are worth every ounce. S’mores, using mini marshmallows I dehydrate myself, M&M, Birthday Cake, Classic Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate Cranberry, Snickerdoodle, and even some gluten-free versions. I don’t faff around with the fancy stuffed cookies or a boring cookie that is all tarted up with toppings–I make cookies that are soft and gooey on the inside, and still with a good crisp on the outside. I use some different preparation and mixing methods that have helped me perfect the texture for these monster cookies! Plus, because they don’t have all that stuff on top, you don’t have to refrigerate them like some other cookies that…Crumble.
After living for a few years in Japan, Japanese food and culture became an important part of my life. My Japanese Milk Bread and my new Cinnamon Bun recipe, inspired by the previous, have been big hits, and there is no better partner for that bread than Japanese style egg salad, made from the Crust + Coop employees. Doesn’t it taste better knowing that the egg salad you’re eating was made possible because of the hard work of our hens, Meryl Cheep or Chickovsky? My French baguette recipe reminds me of my visit to Italy–running to the corner market to grab tomatoes, basil, and a baguette for lunch. Honestly, sometimes I bake some baguettes in the morning just so the house smells like warm bread. Sniffing costs zero calories.
Personally, I’d rather buy all my produce at a corner market, but until I move to Italy, I want to try to get as close to my food source as possible. For me, and for my customers, that’s supporting ethical businesses, run by owners with morals and values, who respect our way of life and the planet we all live on.
How do you think about luck?
I think that I’ve been surprised the most by the connections I’ve made. The way we see businesses now, it’s all very transactional. I’ve been able to meet new people, reconnect with old friends and coworkers, and to see more connectedness. One time I had two customers who also knew each other show up for their order at the same time and also caught up. A lot of the success and joy I’ve had with the business so far has been pretty serendipitous. I feel lucky that I haven’t had bad luck, except that why is butter giving me gas price energy?
Like most businesses, the bad luck I’ll experience will probably be needing to increase my prices for the cost of ingredients. The thought of this originally made me disappointed in myself because I felt I’d be upsetting my customers. But I think that people, maybe because they’re realizing they don’t like how a lot of our food systems and businesses are run, would be willing to pay a little more because of quality and because the employees have way above average working conditions!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://crustandcoop.carrd.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellycrustandcoop/
- Other: https://www.hotplate.com/crustandcoop
